Chevrolet Chevelle and Malibu turn 50 | Hemmings Daily.
Hugely collectable with many a Malibu becoming “Chevelle SS” in the 69-72 years. Beautiful car when they were angular and beautiful cars after they round them up a bit.
1964
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Well we just returned from a weekend trip to Las Vegas celebrating my beautiful wife’s birthday. Of course since you see this post, you can surmise that we didn’t come back big winners, but I did bring home more money than what I started with and we had a great time. However, I was disappointed, I hadn’t been to the “strip” for a number of years and I was expecting to see some fantastic cars zipping around. High roller – flashing their Lambo’s and Farraris or even a Lotus or a classic. Nope – not a one, unless you count the Ferrari that sat at the resort the entire time. Very disappointed.
So back at the old keyboard and here are your auto factoids for the week.
Jan 20, 1942 – Chevy sends it last car off the assembly line until WWII concludes. The bulk of the last cars produced were, for the time, the very undesirable “black out” models – where chrome wasn’t used and the cars seemed muted. But a true black out model is highly sought after in today’s market.
http://travelphotobase.com/v/USWA/WATM4211.HTM
Jan 21, 1954 – …… Tell you what….guess what this is?
http://www.turbinecar.com/mags/trueauto55/trueauto55.htm
It’s a gas-turbine engine powered bus. First displayed in NY on this date. This is a GM application the are others, including a “firebird” and some Chrysler projects.
Jan 24, 1960 – Volvo shows the world the P1800 Prototype. The engine was the Swedish B18 and it displaced 1800 cc. Topped with dual SU carbs it produced 100 hp. The try was dubbed the P1900 but only double digit(under 100) number of cars were sold. The engine was Swedish but the car was being manufactured by Jensen. Jensen had quality control problems with the P1800 and by 1963 Vovlo took the car home to it’s Gothenburg and named it the 1800S (for Sweden).
I seriously like the lines of this car!!
Thanks for reading
Tim
If you’d like to sponsor one or more AGCRMR’s Auto Factoid articles – drop me note. With over 200k monthly page visitors you’ll get a lot of visibility.
Fuel injection pioneer Stu Hilborn dies at 96 | Hemmings Daily.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I love classic trucks and in my 3 plus years of bogging in this field I haven’t done much on trucks. Yes, you’ll see some in my Parking Lot Spot Light pieces but not much else.
Then I got to thinking about doing some articles to make up for that and I realize, after I picked up a book (“Collectible & Classic Trucks” by The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide) at one of my company’s stores (we specialize, among other things, used books) that even those in to the classic truck scene, often over look some really cool trucks.
So I thought I’d cover a few. First up is one I forgot was ever made, much less have seen (in person) any in the past 20 years or so. The Covair Rampside trucks.
This is a ’61 Rampside
This are rear engined, air cooled workhorse that are clearly Corvair all the way.
Fully restored they look great. But leaving them survivor style is really cool as well. Like David Hopkins’
David Hopkins “Everything mechanical is new, but when it came to do paint and body we just couldn’t erase all the history.”
These rough and tough working guy trucks were powered a by rear-mounted, horizontally-opposed six cylinder, air-cooled engine that delivered 80HP and 128 ft-lbs of torque with 145 cu-in of displacement.
This wasn’t the only truck that was Corvair based. We’ll look at the others coming up.
Thanks for reading
Tim
The thing about attending regional car shows in your region is there’ a very good chance that you are going to run some of the same cars, even in a show as big as this one. Oh..don’t get me wrong I love looking at them but writing about the same cars is not very rewarding. So I’m going to show you some of the cars I really enjoyed.
Of course I’m always drawn to the Vettes.
Maybe something in Satin?
Or maybe something with a bit of a sting-er
Or how about an Anniversary Grand Sport!!!
And this one made me miss my old C4.
Lots more to come from the Tucson Classic car show – including – dashes and one particularly rare and extremely AWESOME car!! (Oh..and it’s not a Corvette!!!)
Thanks for reading.
Tim
THIS CAR MATTERS: 1911 Franklin Model D.
Be sure to check out http://www.historicvehicle.org. If you are a member consider joining.
And if you end up in the Tucson area, be sure to added the Franklin Auto Museum
1405 East Kleindale Road
Tucson, AZ 85719
(Entrance is on Vine Ave.)
(520)326-8038
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Auto Factoids are back!!!! Lets just get started.
Happy Birthday (Sept. 8, 1903) Preston Tucker – nice cars!!!
On Sept 9th 1935 Studebaker put the first car on a Pennsylvania RR rail car headed to NYC but the final destination was London. (Actually there were 163 cars in that shipment.)
These are what were shipped
Studebakers on the ship headed for London
On September 13, 1945 Pontiac began producing cars again after WWII. Well sort of. From 1946 to 1948, all Pontiac models were essentially 1942 models with minor changes – like interior and bright-work. The next “all new” Pontiac was the 1949 model.
Looks a like the the ’42 model you say? Yup.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Chrysler Town & Country K-car sells for $13,750 at Auburn | Hemmings Daily.
A Woodie K-ar
While it’s hard to discount the Chrysler K-cars’ historical significance (they did, more or less, save the company under Lee Iacocca’s leadership), most owners viewed them as disposable transportation, to be driven to the point of failure and then discarded. Recently, however, survivor K-cars have been turning up at auctions with surprising selling prices, such as the 1983 Chrysler Town & Country Mark Cross convertible that drew a winning bid of $13,750 (including the 10 percent buyer’s premium) at last weekend’s Auctions America sale in Auburn, Indiana.
Collectible K-Cars? Of course!!!! But did the K-Car really save Chrysler?
Thanks for reading
Tim
I had one of my readers send me this graphic. Thought I’d share.
The Life and Death and Life of the U.S. Auto Industry.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I’ve never been a “caddy” guy. Well that’s not true. I’d would drive a 60’s or less Caddy. But I haven’t seen anything I’d take over a Corvette since then.
But what do you think? Here is the video:
Thanks for reading.
Tim
